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5 Emergency Preparedness Goals for the New Year

Start the new year right by getting ready for emergencies. These five goals are easy to do and will put you in the envious position of being prepared for life’s unexpected changes headed your way in 2010.

1. Build a rainy day fund.

A rainy day fund is a financial safety net. The fund is there to cover unexpected expenses, such as an unanticipated breakdown of your water heater, medical bills or loss of employment. Many financial experts recommend setting aside 6 to 12 months of living expenses but sometimes that is too much to tackle in just one year. Make it your goal to save a minimum of one month’s living expenses this year. Break it down to monthly increments and stash it away in a separate savings account.

2. Make an emergency plan, or if you have one already, review it.

Making an emergency plan is really quite easy and can be done in as little as a half hour. Use The Ready Campaign’s Family Emergency Plan template for your family plan and our Pet Emergency Plan template to make a plan for your pets. Once finished, store the plans in your 72 hour kits.

3. Get a 72 hour kit for your home.

72 hour kits contain essential belongings in a backpack to be used if you and your family need to evacuate quickly. The kits contain food, water, first aid supplies, emergency blankets and much more to keep you going for the first three days of a disaster. It’s less expensive to buy a pre-made kit than to put one together yourselves and the pre-made kits often contain products with longer shelf-lives. Get a pre-made 72 hour kit for each member of your family at Ready Set Go Kits.

4. Get your neighbors involved in emergency preparedness.

Only about half of Americans have some kind of emergency supplies set aside. When disasters strike, roadways and bridges can become impassable, isolating neighborhoods from emergency responders and services. Talk to your neighbors about what kinds of needs they will have in emergencies and what kind of skills and equipment they have. The Map Your Neighborhood program offered by many local emergency management offices can help you in starting the conversation with your neighbors.

5. Take First Aid/CPR/AED training.

You never know when you might need to use CPR, first aid, or AED training to save the life of your children, family, neighbors or friends. The First Aid/CPR/AED training is a one-day training offered at your local emergency management office or at your local Red Cross chapter.